Lunch on the Patio.

This was a valentine's gift to myself: a relaxing, leisurely lunch on the patio with the sun blazing overhead and me shaded underneath an umbrella reading a good book. I can't ask for anything better to do on this gorgeous Sunday. We're lucky to get this kind of weather here while snow storms ravage the majority of the country. I will enjoy it while we have it. So, on to my lunch. I had a platter of dips (hummus and baba ganouj) with pita bread and cucumbers, a Lebanese eggplant and chickpea stew, sweet little clementines and a beer and tomato juice. Yes you heard that right! I used to love Clamato y cerveza when I was omni and the only way I can kind of duplicate that is to use tomato juice instead of Clamato. Tastes great and works for me!


The two dips in the front are hummus and baba ganouj that was leftover from my lunch yesterday at Gaby's Mediterranean cafe. I also had a big thing of hummus that I made last week so I added some of that to my plate as well. Drizzled with olive oil and flanked by cucumbers, this was heaven.


The star of the meal. Mnazalet Al-Batinjan or Eggplant and Chickpea stew from "Tables of Lebanon" cookbook. Easiest recipe ever. It's beautifully fragrant with cumin and mint leaves. The eggplant is so tender, it melts in your mouth. I love this dish.


Scoop some on bread and eat!


Dessert was the chocolate beer waffles from Vegan Brunch cookbook. Yummy! I served them with blueberry/maple syrup and a dusting of powdered sugar.

The Muffin Gods Must Be Angry With Me...

You're looking at the bran muffin recipe from 1,000 Vegan Recipes. Now, if I would have followed directions correctly I could have gotten a totally different muffin. But the way things panned out, I got these instead. They are good and well enough but not what I was looking for. You might remember I made oat bran muffins a few weeks ago and didn't get the result I wanted then either. I wanted fluffy, dark brown, sticky and sweet bran muffins that were like the ones I used to buy before I went vegan. I know there's a recipe out there!

So back to these muffins... I made a huge mistake. Robin says to use 3 cups of bran flakes cereal. She also said that if the flakes were especially large, to measure them out first and then crush them into smaller flakes. I totally did this backwards and crushed a bunch of flakes first, then measured them out. Ugh. And I wondered why the batter seemed kind of dry. They baked up small and firm on the outside and a little moist on the inside. I spread Earth Balance margarine on them to make them more special. Again, they are good and healthy but not what I was looking for.

Olive Tapenade Pasta

Used up the leftover olive tapenade to make this pasta. I just sauteed it with olive oil, garlic, red onions and mushrooms and tossed it all with noodles. Simple and delicious!

Hummus, Black Olive Tapenade, Black Pepper Cheeze

To continue yesterday's delicious Mediterranean theme, I made a few things to enjoy today. The rain had gone, leaving a bright, breezy and sunny day in it's wake. I was not going to waste a weekend by staying indoors and not enjoy the beauty. I brought my book and a tray of delicious snacks to the patio.


My tray of deliciousness. I made hummus and I always use the same recipe everytime which is from the "Tables of Lebanon" cookbook. It's creamy, lemony and garlicky and just perfect. I also made black olive tapenade, black pepper cheeze and mint iced tea. And of course with all these dips and spreads, I had pita bread and fresh baguette slices.


Black olive tapenade. Recipe from "The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen". It's made with olives, garlic, dijon, capers, herbes de provence and olive oil. So good. I can see this being used to toss with hot pasta.


Black pepper cheeze from "Ani's Raw Food Kitchen", made with cashews, garlic, lemon juice, black pepper and crushed red pepper.


Mmm, can you imagine?

It's all Greek to me.

I went to the library a few days ago and checked out a Greek cookbook called "The Olive and The Caper". It's not a vegetarian book but there are so many appealing vegetarian recipes in it that I wanted to try out this weekend. I should say that my interest in Greece and greek cooking has been sparked up again because of a suspense novel that I'm reading that takes place in this magical place. (The book is My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart by the way.)


First up, Eggplant and Yogurt Dip. I swapped greek yogurt for plain unsweetened soy yogurt. It's a beautiful mixture of eggplant pulp, yogurt, garlic, red onions and salty black olives. This was amazing. I'm definitely going to make this for parties.


Next, "Russian" Salad. Green beans, carrots, potatoes, in a lemon-caper mayonnaise (vegan mayo of course!). It's supposed to also have lima beans and peas but I left them out. Very good and creamy.


For the main dish I made Gigantes which are big beans in a tomato based sauce. We're supposed to use authentic greek big beans here but large lima beans are a popular replacement. I didn't really use the recipe from the book but instead adapted this recipe I found online. The beans are baked with diced tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery, dill, oregano and olive oil. I replaced the honey with a bit of sugar and left out the carrots. They baked up beautifully (though a little mushy) but were so tasty both warm and at room temp.


Closeup of the tender buttery beans. The dill flavor shined through just the way I had hoped.


My plate with a side of pita for dipping!


To go with the Mediterranean theme, dessert was orange blossom cake with fig yogurt sauce. I used kittee's basic vanilla cake recipe and subbed a little orange juice and orange blossom for some of the water. For the sauce, I just whisked a few spoonfuls of fig jam into plain soy yogurt.


The cake was moist and sweet with orange blossom notes. The yogurt sauce took it to another level. So many beautiful flavors!

Split Pea Soup w/ Baking Powder Dumplings

I pureed last night's soup and made these baking powder dumplings from a recipe I got from the coolest little cookbook I found at the library's "Free" table. Turns out it was published sometime in the late 1920's. There are hardly any vegan recipes in it but I think I can work with them to make them animal free. The dumplings recipe only needed rice milk to switch out for the milk. They came out fluffy and soft, perfect with the hot and creamy soup!

Oriental Salad, Split Pea Soup and Daiya Quesadilla

This was dinner:


Oriental salad with romaine, pea shoots, mandarins, carrots and a sesame dressing.


Curried split pea soup (recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance) and Daiya vegan cheese quesadilla.